In the past, if it was desired to build a pillar so as to, for example, support fence panels, gates or the like, and if it was desired that the pillar be of brick construction, a bricklayer was required to build the pillar in the same fashion as the bricklayer would build any other brick structure, namely, using bricks, mortar and a considerable amount of skill.
Applicant is, however, aware of an attempt in the prior art to simulate the look of brick pillars by the use of modular building blocks which may be assembled vertically to form a pillar, where the blocks have a circumferential surface made to simulate the appearance of bricks and mortar. In particular, Applicant is aware of European patent 030,510 A2 to Servant which teaches a modular system for building walls or pillars using hollow blocks of terra cotta. What is disclosed for building a pillar is a block which is, in cross section, a hollow rectangle having grooves formed on the outer faces of the block to give the appearance of individual bricks laid in a conventional manner. A number of such blocks are placed one upon another in careful alignment and the hollow center of the blocks then filled with cement or concrete to bond the blocks together. What is neither taught nor suggested, and which it is an object of the present invention to provide, is interlocking adjacent blocks in the pillar structure so that the blocks do not have to be carefully aligned with one another because the means of interlocking takes care of such alignment. The means of interlocking also alleviates the requirement that the hollow center of the blocks be filled with cement or concrete, so that filling the hollow center is optional in the present invention.
Applicant is also aware of Canadian patent application 2,106,545 to MacDonell which teaches a simulated masonry column having the exterior appearance of masonry constructed by means of exterior siding mounted onto a wooden frame. Again, the interlocking modular blocks of the present invention are neither taught nor suggested.